Five Times Tony Said I love you
by SopranoZone
Summary: ...and one time she knew he meant it. Pepperony oneshot. Spans pre IM1-post IM2


**Five Times Tony Said "I Love you." (and One Time She Knew He Meant It.)**

_**By Karen Roper**_

* * *

Pepper discovered that Tony is usually a happy drunk very quickly once she had been hired as his PA. Very likely the night of the first benefit she actually got him to attend.

"PepperPepperPepper, looklooklook...I know you said that we had that...armed services committee meeting in the morning, right? Like, obscenely early," Tony said as he made his way over to her. His steps were clearly less than steady, but the buxom blonde on his arm seemed content with his use of her as a steadying post.

"At ten am, yes Mr. Stark." Frankly she wasn't sure if she was more impressed that he remembered the name of who they were meeting with, or that there was even a meeting in the first place.

"Yeah, that. Soooo just so you know, I'm gonna be up late with this lovely lady—"

"Britney," said 'lady' interjected, not that Tony was listening.

"-Yeah, so I'm not going to the meeting."

Pepper was taken aback by his... consideration?...in informing her of his future absence. "How very...kind of you, Mr Stark, to let me know before hand. I will reschedule the meeting."

Tony's face broke in a grin before he turned back to his bimbo. "You're a doll, Potts, I love you. Later!"

He sashayed off, and Pepper felt a slight flush rising up the back of her neck.

* * *

"Good morning Miss Potts."

"Good morning Jarvis. Is Tony still in bed?"

Pepper moved to set down her bag on the table before moving over to the coffee machine in the kitchen.

"Negative, Miss Potts. Mr Stark never quite made it to bed last night and only two hours ago fell asleep in the workshop."

She sighed as she pulled out two large mugs, pouring them full of coffee before heading toward the stairs. Jarvis opened the door for her and she made her way over to Tony. He was unconscious at one of his work tables, disassembled pieces of what she suspected was part of a car engine strewn around him. She moved the mug in front of his face for a moment before setting it in front of him.

Moments later, his brow furrowed, before his eyes blearily opened. He blinked a few times before his eyes focused on the mug.

"...Coffee...love you, Potts."

She smiled to herself as he inhaled the mug. Once he finished, she traded it for the second.

"You know, you're lucky I cleared your schedule this afternoon. I suggest using it for a nap."

"Yeah yeah..."

* * *

"I swear, you must have been a mother hen in a previous life, Potts, what with how you mother ME all the time..."

"I fail to see how doing my job counts as mothering," she said dryly, straightening the set of index cards, knowing he wouldn't even bother to look at them during the press conference. She then moved to place them in his breast pocket. She frowned at his tie.

"See? This is exactly what I mean," he said, as she attacked said tie. She completely undid the knot he'd done and retied it quickly and efficiently.

"I believe we are done here, Mr Stark, if that will be all?"

"That'll be all...wait, Potts, you got somewhere to be?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact I do. Which is why you better not mess up this conference."

"Of course, I wont. Promise you'll be safe though, Potts? I feel a little nervous letting you out of my sight."

"I assure you. I'm a big girl, I can handle it."

"Look at my Potts...going out on her own, without me!"

Pepper shot him a wry smile, realizing what he was doing. The idea of Tony stark mothering anyone was ridiculous. She pulled his tie a little tighter than needed before turning to head out the door.

"Have a good day! I love you! Don't talk to strangers!" He waved at her as she walked away.

Pepper rolled her eyes.

* * *

There were few times when Tony Stark actually took his meetings seriously. Whenever he did, he always reminded her of the old newsreels of his father-calm, collected, with a hidden undertone of deadly calculation. Usually these moments only happened when he was presenting a new idea to someone who he knew wouldn't tolerate his playboy attitude. But the mood surfaced so infrequently, that it was more the fact that he was being responsible at all that threw her for a loop than the presence he offered.

This morning happened to be one of those moments. Today Pepper arrived at the mansion to find Tony fully dressed, facing the window and going over blueprints with Jarvis.

"...I'm still not 100% on the timing of the secondary rounds..."

"Mr Stark?"

He turned to face her, nodding.

"Miss Potts. Is it time to leave?"

"We're a bit early, however if you're ready to leave-"

"Yep. Let's get this show on the road. You're always telling me to prep for delays at the airport, why not head them off by being early?"

Pepper had to bite her tongue to keep from commenting that usually HE was the delay at the airport, as he briskly walked past her on his way to the door. Pepper moved to go after him, right before spotting the mobile device he used to uplink to Jarvis was sitting on the coffee table. With a sigh, she grabbed it and put it in her purse.

Before she even reached the car, her phone was ringing, and she spent the ride to the airport on the line with public relations, scheduling various interviews that absolutely HAD to happen before the end of the week.

Tony spent most of the plane ride, taking apart one of the flight attendant's cell phones, before getting a short nap. Once they reached New York, Tony was on the phone with Obediah until they reached the conference room.

Pepper was reminded of the uplink as Tony suddenly stopped in the hall, patting his pockets quickly. He quickly turned to her with wide eyes."

"Ohhh, sh-"

"Forget something, Mr Stark?"

She held up the device, and for a moment he looked as though he might faint with relief. He darted forward to snatch it from her hand.

"I love you Potts, don't know what I'd do without you."

"Surely you'd perish."

"Don't we know it. Here we go. The walls are gonna come tumbling down with this one-it'll knock their socks off."

* * *

It had been so long since Tony had done something like this, that Pepper didn't quite know what to do. Then again, when he'd done this before, he hadn't been wearing a nigh-on-indistructable gold-titanium armor capable of leveling the house in a matter of minutes.

She'd returned from the bathroom only to find that he'd swapped out the "party favors" for the whole enchalada. Her attempt to gather her wits before confronting him was sidelined upon Rhodey's arrival and threat to call the higher ups. Forced to resolve the issue as quickly as posssible, she approached the 'stage,' internally wincing as Tony made a crude joke about peeing in the suit. As he doubled over laughing, she extracted the mic from his hand.

"Wooow...Does this man know how to throw a party, or what?"

As the crowd cheered, Tony managed to right himself, grinning as he saluted them and smiled at her.

"Pepperr!"

He then reminded Pepper of his propensity for forgoing personal space when he was drunk by nearly leaning on her as he attempted to get to the mic.

"I love youuu!"

His gauntlet covered hand was distracting as he ran it across her back, and he seemed suddenly more interested with seeing how close he could get to her. As his hand trailed lower, she gently pushed against his chest, shaking off his drawl with a false laugh.

"Oh haha, Tony, thank you so much, for such a wonderful night..."

As she tried to get things moving toward emptying the house, Tony appeared to have completeley shifted his attention to invading her space and trying to make a move on her. His hand shifted much lower than she preferred as he leaned in closer, the open helmet faceplate brushing against her hair, mumbling something that sounded like "Beautiful."

"...and we're all going to say 'Goodnight,' now, thank you for coming..."

That seemed to catch his attention, as he pulled back, a distressed look coming across his face.

"Nonono, waitwaitwaitwaitwait, we cant do that, we didnt have the, the cake, we didnt blow out the candles-"

"You're out of control, k?"

"I'm not outta control."

"Trust me on this one, okay?"

"You're out of control gorgeous, but..."

"Its time to go to bed. It's time.

She leaned back as he sighed, leaning closer, the smell of alcohol on his breath.

"You're not going to be very happy-"

"Comeon, gimme a little smooch, you know you want to.'

"You just peed in the suit, okay?"

"I know, it's got a filtration system, you could drink that water-"

"It's not sexy."

He finished his statement just after her, and paused for a moment as she felt genuine frustrated disappointment win over her emotions.

"Just...just send everybody home, okay? It's time to..."

She trailed off as she met his eyes in absolute seriousness. His expression then closed off, signalling that he had made up his mind on something. He pulled back a bit, straightening, seemingly a bit more sobered that before.

"If you say so."

She felt relief fill her, her emotions steadying a bit in anticipation of getting things back on track. She took the bottle of wine from his gauntleted hand, trading it for the microphone.

"Okay. I'll take this, you take that..."

He stepped back, before heading down the steps to address the crowd."

"Pepper Potts."

She forced a tight smile as the crowd tittered politely, promising to herself she'd sort through her own wayward emotions later. Moments later, that plan was shot to hell as Tony made his announcement for the "Afterparty," and everything went downhill from there.

* * *

Pepper stirred as she felt the bed shift next to her. Sitting up quickly, she immediately reached out and grabbed a hold of Tony.

"You're back." Her voice was a bit groggy with sleep as she struggled to get her brain up to speed. "Jarvis was supposed to wake me up when-"

"I overrode it. It's three in the morning-I didn't want to wake you up."

"But what if-are you hurt? Tony, it really isnt safe-"

"Pepper, I'm not stupid. If I'm in bad shape I let you know. You know that."

"I know but I...I like to know when you're on your way home. It...makes me worry a little less. Are you hurt?"

Her hands ran over his form, searching for injuries. He leaned forward, kissing her forehead.

"I'm fine. Couple bruises, but that's all. And tired." He sighed, before flopping over on his side of the bed with a groan. "Really really tired. Like, sleep through all day and next November, tired."

She smiled, laying back down and snuggling close to him.

"Well, your schedule's only cleared through Friday, so you'll have to make do with that."

He chuckled lightly, before they fell into comfortable silence. The gentle hum of the reactor relaxed her mind, and she felt sleepiness creeping up on her once again. Just before she drifted off, she heard him say those three words she loved to hear him say.

* * *

_**Here you are. This one TOOK FOREVER to get written. Seriously started it days after Breaking Point, but it just refused to be written. Reviews are GREATLY APPRECIATED.**_

_**Posted to my LJ 10.18.10**_


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